You never know what you get until you get it. And boy do we ever have it. Elected officials who do not listen and do not learn.
Ron Exline wanted to speak last week after the Finance Advisory Board (non presentation) and he was denied. Citizens aren't allowed to speak on presentations. As there was no public commentary on non-agendaed items, he had an important message and told the commission that he had information for them. Do you think that even one elected official bothered to call him to this day to find out what he had to say? Don't you think that this would be just intellectual curiosity at least? To turn down a former mayor and commissioner and former Chair of the Finance Advisory Board and someone who campaigned for all of them is just plain insulting and stupid. The City Commission does not want to hear from its citizens and they treat the majority of us like morons.
In spite of this, we all instinctively know what "fair" is and what it is not. You can't sit on the dais and reinvent the meaning of the word. Fair connotes impartiality and honesty. The word fair, in the case of the City, means that we all pay the same on a concoction to grab more money going around property taxes. They are trying to sell us the idea that this tax is marked by impartiality (we all pay the same). Is the City being honest?. This is their easy way out. They are not assessing honestly by taxing everyone the same fee. On top of that, this is not for a fire service but a pension. Better yet, assessing at all is the most dishonest part of their argument.
The City Manager says that in her mind, everyone paying the same fee for Fire pensions is fair. This is a totally different argument than that of garbage collection. Everyone here is paying for a service when it comes to garbage. But this assessment for Solid Waste was just put on our non-advalorem portion of our bill in 2009, the year that the city manager arrived to Lake Worth. It had always been in the budget and paid by property taxes. Money and process started to shift around back then. It was a visionary thing starting in 2009. We needed a strong city manager to turn it all around. We burned through money.
What is really fair is eliminating this fire tax in its entirety. We have already learned that this commission is not into "fair." They are following the City Manager while she leads them into hot burning coals.
The Commission has until tonight to see the light. I'm not going to get into all the whys again of this unfair tax. Simply, if you agree with me, and the commission votes this tax in, then change is needed at City Hall. We all understand what the word "NO" means. After tonight it is time to send that loud and clear message on November 8 and keep it alive well into next year's election.
4 comments:
Very well said. This is a tax, plain and simple, and a cash grab by the city Manager. We all need to say NO!!
Illegal and will cost the city, and us, much more in litigation and attorneys fees costs, plus City will have to refund illegal tax.
This "special assesment" by our "special" city manager is not even going for fire services! it is going to be thrown into the general fund. Lynn hit the nail on the head-THIS IS A MONEY GRAB!A downtown merchant was told by a VERY high ranking city official that "if we had that special assesment money you merchants could have your Haloween parade"!I am NOT going to be paying my "special" assesment.This city and it's employees can go to H*LL!
Sooo.... even though EVERY PERSON spoke against the use of an assessment as a way for the City Manager to raise money from us tax payers, renters, home owners and VOTERS, our representative form of government let us down.
Our only true representative, Commissioner Scott Maxwell, held his own from the beginning. Thank YOU Scott.
But lo it was too much for the other "progressives". Even faced with the fact that reducing their current budget by 1% would have raised the cash with enough to replenish our dwindling reserves.
More revelations about how the numbers "just don't add up" were presented, but they again were ignored and we endured more lectures about how well they are doing and how the blame can be laid at the feet of past, less competent commissions.
What a CROCK!
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